Greetings! From fall 2022 I will be teaching at the Laidlaw Music Centre of the University of St Andrews and, in addition to performance activities, will be available as a freelance music teacher and consultant.
Services I am able to offer include:
Please feel free to be in touch at benjamin.j.shute (at) gmail.com
Violin teaching: background information
For me, it is at once humbling and inspiring to think of the amazing tradition whose current we join—and to which we contribute in some small way—when we approach performing on an instrument and interpreting its literature. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have undertaken my own studies with teachers representing a variety of schools of playing. My early instruction in Philadelphia with Lee Snyder, a Galamian student, gave me a sound technical foundation which I impart to my own students. Subsequently, my undergraduate teacher at the New England Conservatory, Masuko Ushioda, had begun her studies with an Auer pupil before continuing with Vaiman in St. Petersburg and later with Szigeti in Switzerland. Later at NEC, I had the privilege of studying with Lucy Chapman, an inspiringly well-rounded musician and teacher who had studied with Steinhardt at Curtis. I was also fortunate to spend two years studying in Freiburg with Rainer Kussmaul, a concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and an early pioneer of period instruments. He, in turn, had studied under Ricardo Odnoposoff, himself a concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic and student of Carl Flesch. This great diversity of influences has given me a broad understanding of the technical and musical possibilities of our instrument, upon which I draw to help students find solutions that are most fitting for them. I have taught students of all ages and abilities in a variety of contexts (universities, pre-collegiate music schools, and summer festivals in the Europe, Asia, and the USA) across a broad swath of repertoire, from sonatas and chamber music of all periods to concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Lalo, Goldmark, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvorak, Sibelius, Elgar, Prokofiev, Barber, Kabalevsky, etc. It has been rewarding to see students with whom I have worked go on to further study at institutions including Juilliard, Eastman, the Cleveland Institute, Peabody, Boston Conservatory, Wheaton Conservatory, Northwestern University, Baylor University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Colorado—Boulder.
Violin teaching philosophy
There are many proposed answers to the inevitable question of why we as musicians do what we do—not only what brings us to it in the first place, but what keeps us pursuing our craft and what empowers us to do difficult things like walking out in front of a crowd of people to deliver performances that represent many hours of disciplined work and huge emotional investment. For me, it comes down to a belief that music conveys something that is somehow both visceral and elusive, resonating with and, as it were, transfiguring the human experience. I have found myself stirred deeply by music in ways that make me want to share its depths with others in the most effective way I can. That is what undergirds each performance, and it is also the foundation of my teaching.
One of the wonderful things about music is its marriage of artistry and technique, the mysterious and the scientific; and although artistic results can certainly be explained to considerable extent in technical-scientific terms, I am wary of the view that technique produces musicianship: while in no way downplaying the importance of an analytical and methodical approach to technique, I believe that the artistic concept is the fuel on which the scientific pursuit of technical excellence must feed, with technique always being at the service of an aesthetic and interpretive ideal. Even from the earliest days, I want students to understand the mechanics of (for instance) drawing a straight bow because they're searching for a beautiful and ultimately a moving sound.
Similarly, for students who are aspiring to a career in music, it is important to prepare them along the dual axes of "pure" musical artistry on one hand and, on the other, preparation for the practical requirements of the industry. We ignore either of these dimensions at our own peril, and perhaps also the peril of our musical culture.
In teaching any student, regardless of aspiration, I believe that music is a holistic pursuit: an understanding of the inner workings of a piece of music and knowledge of its historical and cultural context are essential to interpreting any piece of music—since after all, as performers we are first and foremost interpreters. And interpretation, in turn, dictates how we deploy our technical resources (as the same passage played in a different way requires different technique!)
At the heart of my approach is the belief that every musician, as every person, is unique, which has three major implications for my teaching. First, I believe it is my responsibility to cultivate the individual voice of each student rather than to turn them into a copy of myself (or someone else). Second, it means that I can't subscribe to cookie-cutter approaches to pedagogy: I try to meet each student where they are and convey ideas in ways that they will best understand and relate to them. Third, it means that my students will likely take very different career paths, even among those who go into music professionally. Part of my role is to help students identify career goals that will be meaningful to them and to aid them in working toward those goals.
But first and foremost, I want my students to take from our studies an increased love and appreciation for music, which I hope, if I've done my job, will enrich their lives both within and outside the realm of music.
***
Historically informed performance (HIP) coaching: background information
I began my involvement in historical performance practice in my mid-teens at Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, working with leading members of the American early music scene, including principals of such ensembles as Philharmonia Baroque and Apollo’s Fire. Later in Germany I was deeply enriched by studies with Bernhard Forck (concertmaster of AKAMUS Berlin), Robert Hill (harpsichordist, formerly of Musica Antiqua Köln), and leading members of ensembles such as Freiburger Barockorchester, La Stagione Frankfurt, and the EU Baroque Orchestra. I was fortunate while on the faculty of Oklahoma City University (2019-22) that the university had a collection of fine period-instrument replicas with which I could introduce the study of period instruments into the violin and chamber music curricula, teaching repertoire from Biber to Mendelssohn with the relevant performance practices.
HIP teaching philosophy
For decades now, there have been debates over the nature of historically informed performance and even its validity as a paradigm. While of course it is impossible to re-enter the shoes of performers and audiences of any historical period, I nonetheless agree with those who feel that a knowledge of the performance practices of any particular period can uniquely shed light on the compositions of the period in ways that can enrich our experience of these works today. But however specific, historical performance techniques are not the end-goal of a performance, merely a framework through which we bring our own artistic impulses to bear: after all, if we omit the individuality and creativity of the performer, we're missing an important historical element of musical performance!
***
Composition
After early introductions to composition and harmony, much of my learning as a composer was self-guided, consisting of many hours of score study, reading, and analytic listening, with subsequent studies in historical contrapuntal/compositional practices at the New England Conservatory with instructors including Lyle Davidson. I am prepared to guide students as they formulate their own musical voice within a variety of styles, bolstered by training in the fundamental practices of 16th-century counterpoint (the foundation of all subsequent Western practice), harmony, musical structure, etc.
***
Musicology
During my doctoral studies at NEC, I was fortunate to work closely with Helen Greenwald, from whom I learned a great deal about the process of the scholarly editing of music as well as the editing of musicological writing. Published projects representative of my musicology experience to date include the interdisciplinary analytical-historical monograph Sei Solo: Symbolum? The Theology of J. S. Bach's Solo Violin Works, a reconstruction of a lost Bach concerto from extant sources (BWV 1052R), and a completion of an incompletely surviving Bach sinfonia (BWV 1045) based on structural clues from the surviving portion of manuscript. Self-produced projects include an edition of Bologne’s Op. 1a sonatas that draws upon historical composition practices to correct extensive errors in the sole surviving period source. Fusing musicology and composition, I have also created various historically informed cadenzas and recreated the blank inner voices of the ouverture to the 17th-century Ballet de la Nuict.
Services I am able to offer include:
- Regular lessons in modern or baroque violin for students of all ages
- Consultation/coaching sessions, e.g., in preparation for auditions
- Coaching of pre-formed chamber ensembles
- Lessons or consultations in composition
- Consultation sessions on or editing of musicological projects
Please feel free to be in touch at benjamin.j.shute (at) gmail.com
Violin teaching: background information
For me, it is at once humbling and inspiring to think of the amazing tradition whose current we join—and to which we contribute in some small way—when we approach performing on an instrument and interpreting its literature. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have undertaken my own studies with teachers representing a variety of schools of playing. My early instruction in Philadelphia with Lee Snyder, a Galamian student, gave me a sound technical foundation which I impart to my own students. Subsequently, my undergraduate teacher at the New England Conservatory, Masuko Ushioda, had begun her studies with an Auer pupil before continuing with Vaiman in St. Petersburg and later with Szigeti in Switzerland. Later at NEC, I had the privilege of studying with Lucy Chapman, an inspiringly well-rounded musician and teacher who had studied with Steinhardt at Curtis. I was also fortunate to spend two years studying in Freiburg with Rainer Kussmaul, a concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and an early pioneer of period instruments. He, in turn, had studied under Ricardo Odnoposoff, himself a concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic and student of Carl Flesch. This great diversity of influences has given me a broad understanding of the technical and musical possibilities of our instrument, upon which I draw to help students find solutions that are most fitting for them. I have taught students of all ages and abilities in a variety of contexts (universities, pre-collegiate music schools, and summer festivals in the Europe, Asia, and the USA) across a broad swath of repertoire, from sonatas and chamber music of all periods to concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Lalo, Goldmark, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvorak, Sibelius, Elgar, Prokofiev, Barber, Kabalevsky, etc. It has been rewarding to see students with whom I have worked go on to further study at institutions including Juilliard, Eastman, the Cleveland Institute, Peabody, Boston Conservatory, Wheaton Conservatory, Northwestern University, Baylor University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Colorado—Boulder.
Violin teaching philosophy
There are many proposed answers to the inevitable question of why we as musicians do what we do—not only what brings us to it in the first place, but what keeps us pursuing our craft and what empowers us to do difficult things like walking out in front of a crowd of people to deliver performances that represent many hours of disciplined work and huge emotional investment. For me, it comes down to a belief that music conveys something that is somehow both visceral and elusive, resonating with and, as it were, transfiguring the human experience. I have found myself stirred deeply by music in ways that make me want to share its depths with others in the most effective way I can. That is what undergirds each performance, and it is also the foundation of my teaching.
One of the wonderful things about music is its marriage of artistry and technique, the mysterious and the scientific; and although artistic results can certainly be explained to considerable extent in technical-scientific terms, I am wary of the view that technique produces musicianship: while in no way downplaying the importance of an analytical and methodical approach to technique, I believe that the artistic concept is the fuel on which the scientific pursuit of technical excellence must feed, with technique always being at the service of an aesthetic and interpretive ideal. Even from the earliest days, I want students to understand the mechanics of (for instance) drawing a straight bow because they're searching for a beautiful and ultimately a moving sound.
Similarly, for students who are aspiring to a career in music, it is important to prepare them along the dual axes of "pure" musical artistry on one hand and, on the other, preparation for the practical requirements of the industry. We ignore either of these dimensions at our own peril, and perhaps also the peril of our musical culture.
In teaching any student, regardless of aspiration, I believe that music is a holistic pursuit: an understanding of the inner workings of a piece of music and knowledge of its historical and cultural context are essential to interpreting any piece of music—since after all, as performers we are first and foremost interpreters. And interpretation, in turn, dictates how we deploy our technical resources (as the same passage played in a different way requires different technique!)
At the heart of my approach is the belief that every musician, as every person, is unique, which has three major implications for my teaching. First, I believe it is my responsibility to cultivate the individual voice of each student rather than to turn them into a copy of myself (or someone else). Second, it means that I can't subscribe to cookie-cutter approaches to pedagogy: I try to meet each student where they are and convey ideas in ways that they will best understand and relate to them. Third, it means that my students will likely take very different career paths, even among those who go into music professionally. Part of my role is to help students identify career goals that will be meaningful to them and to aid them in working toward those goals.
But first and foremost, I want my students to take from our studies an increased love and appreciation for music, which I hope, if I've done my job, will enrich their lives both within and outside the realm of music.
***
Historically informed performance (HIP) coaching: background information
I began my involvement in historical performance practice in my mid-teens at Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, working with leading members of the American early music scene, including principals of such ensembles as Philharmonia Baroque and Apollo’s Fire. Later in Germany I was deeply enriched by studies with Bernhard Forck (concertmaster of AKAMUS Berlin), Robert Hill (harpsichordist, formerly of Musica Antiqua Köln), and leading members of ensembles such as Freiburger Barockorchester, La Stagione Frankfurt, and the EU Baroque Orchestra. I was fortunate while on the faculty of Oklahoma City University (2019-22) that the university had a collection of fine period-instrument replicas with which I could introduce the study of period instruments into the violin and chamber music curricula, teaching repertoire from Biber to Mendelssohn with the relevant performance practices.
HIP teaching philosophy
For decades now, there have been debates over the nature of historically informed performance and even its validity as a paradigm. While of course it is impossible to re-enter the shoes of performers and audiences of any historical period, I nonetheless agree with those who feel that a knowledge of the performance practices of any particular period can uniquely shed light on the compositions of the period in ways that can enrich our experience of these works today. But however specific, historical performance techniques are not the end-goal of a performance, merely a framework through which we bring our own artistic impulses to bear: after all, if we omit the individuality and creativity of the performer, we're missing an important historical element of musical performance!
***
Composition
After early introductions to composition and harmony, much of my learning as a composer was self-guided, consisting of many hours of score study, reading, and analytic listening, with subsequent studies in historical contrapuntal/compositional practices at the New England Conservatory with instructors including Lyle Davidson. I am prepared to guide students as they formulate their own musical voice within a variety of styles, bolstered by training in the fundamental practices of 16th-century counterpoint (the foundation of all subsequent Western practice), harmony, musical structure, etc.
***
Musicology
During my doctoral studies at NEC, I was fortunate to work closely with Helen Greenwald, from whom I learned a great deal about the process of the scholarly editing of music as well as the editing of musicological writing. Published projects representative of my musicology experience to date include the interdisciplinary analytical-historical monograph Sei Solo: Symbolum? The Theology of J. S. Bach's Solo Violin Works, a reconstruction of a lost Bach concerto from extant sources (BWV 1052R), and a completion of an incompletely surviving Bach sinfonia (BWV 1045) based on structural clues from the surviving portion of manuscript. Self-produced projects include an edition of Bologne’s Op. 1a sonatas that draws upon historical composition practices to correct extensive errors in the sole surviving period source. Fusing musicology and composition, I have also created various historically informed cadenzas and recreated the blank inner voices of the ouverture to the 17th-century Ballet de la Nuict.
